


Second Chance

by Skylark42



Category: Red Embrace (Video Games)
Genre: Ex Sex, Getting Back Together, M/M, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24922093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark42/pseuds/Skylark42
Summary: Randal wants to ask why the kid keeps getting second chances, when all he does is fuck up. But he gets it. He understands how easy it is to look at that pretty face and think something has to be behind it.
Relationships: Randal/Heath
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> I will row this ship all by myself if I have to, dammit.

“So what's the deal with you and Heath? The real deal.”

Ash has asked this question before and he's given her an answer, but he didn't get too far into it. Not really. And he and Ash are close now—she's a good friend to have, being the one who runs the city. She consults him on laws and orders, makes sure she's doing the best by everyone. The Maavar mostly like her, though some think she's not necessary at all.

Randal's begun to feel differently. People want a leader. They could pretend all they want, but in the end, hadn't they all been ready to follow him? So let Ash lead. He doesn't think he can. He can feel something dark in himself, something growing that wants to lash out and hurt.

Ash reaches across the booth and rests a hand lightly on his arm. “It's okay, if you don't want to talk about it. It's just I plan on working with him, so I need you two to play nice.”

“What? Work with that backstabber?”

Ash sighs heavily. She can be less diplomatic around him, more relaxed. “He was working with Andrei in in the end. He may have a clue to his whereabouts.”

“If Zhang doesn't know, why would Heath?”

Ash looks away a moment, out the window. She's avoiding his gaze because it means she's about to talk about one of her Golgotha visions. “They were close in a different way. Intimate.”

Randal feels a shiver of disgust go down his spine. The idea of Andrei and Heath being intimate is...well, it isn't pleasant. “We used to fuck.”

He says it bluntly, as bluntly as he can. Even when they had harbored such different ideals, there had been an attraction there. So, impulsively, he acted on it. Back when Heath was new and fresh and didn't have his head so far up Saorise's ass.

“Hm,” Ash says, which means she already worked it out herself and wanted him to say so. Not that she cares about who fucks who. Sex doesn't factor into her relationship with Markus, however that works. Their relationship is a mystery to him, but he's glad they have each other.

Ash drums her fingers on the table and sighs again. “Heath has contacted me. He ran off looking for his mother and found out she died. He says he knows where Andrei may be, and he'll tell me for permission to stay in the city. He misses Hollywood.”

Randal feels a pang of pity. Losing his mother once had been hard enough on Heath. Losing her again...it may have broke him. “Where do I factor into this?”

Ash smiles, short and guilty. “I was hoping with your history you might get some information out of him.”

“...Fine, but only because it's you asking.”

Ash nods. “I've got him set up in his old room at the hotel. I hoped the nostalgia might loosen his tongue.”

“Let's get this over with.”

Ash looks up at him coolly, those eyes of a star and that face that belonged on billboards. “Play nice. He's been through a lot.”

Randal wants to ask why the kid keeps getting second chances, when all he does is fuck up. But he gets it. He understands how easy it is to look at that pretty face and think something has to be behind it.

“There is...he's finally come into himself.”

Randal shakes his head. “I hate when you do that Golgotha mind reading crap.”

Ash tilts her head to the side, and looks like a mannequin for a moment, lifeless and dead. “...Interesting.”

Randal doesn't ask. She's as odd as Markus these days. “Consider it done.”

///

Heath is sitting on the bed when he gets there, chewing his lip. His hands reach in his pockets and come back empty and he shakes his head. “It's a bad time to give up smoking.”

Randal doesn't know what to say, so he says nothing. _If you can't say something nice..._

“I'm surprised she sent you.”

What he means is he's surprised Randal came. Randal gets that. “Sorry about your mom.” It's the only kind thing he can think to say.

Heath nods. “It's good to know, even if I never—never got to ask her why she left. Why she abandoned me.”

Were those tears? Randal couldn't stand tears. Seeing someone cry always made him feel like a dick, even Heath. Especially Heath, once. “Look man, I-”

“Still don't like seeing me cry?” Heath says, and blinks away the tears. “It's not—I'm not trying to manipulate you, if that's what you think.”

Randal had accused him of such a thing once, back when they were together. It had ended with Heath crying and Randal calling him weak, but then, Randal was the one who apologized, so maybe Heath won after all. “I don't care enough to be manipulated anymore.”

He moves and sits next to Heath. “About you and Andrei...”

Heath sniffs. “He made me feel important. Made me think we could have it all, like some fairy tale.”

“You didn't have to fuck him.” Randal surprises himself with the vehemency of the words. He should be past caring who Heath fucks. He hasn't been this angry since Heath made those doll eyes at Ash, the same ones he once made at him.

“No one else was there,” Heath says, as though it was that simple. “Ash didn't want me, you hated me.”

“And you just can't stand being alone,” Randal says bitterly.

“Can you?” Heath asks. “Surrounded all the time by people who adore you?”

Randal hates the attention. (But he loves the attention.) “You could have been there with me.”

Heath traces a finger over his hand, up his arm. “I couldn't leave my mother.”

“So she left you.”

Mommy was loyal to Saorise and so Heath was loyal to Saorise. Why bother thinking for himself, when he could just do what his mother said?

(Once Ash had explained that Heath was like he was because his mother built him that way, that they were all just products of their upbringings.)

The finger on his arm stops moving. “That was cruel.”

“...Sorry, kid.”

Heath nods. “You don't want to be here, I understand.”

The hand is back on his arm, fingers splayed there as if to keep him in place. “I've been doing a lot of thinking. Soul searching. Do you want to know what I found?”

“No, but is isn't going to stop you from telling me.”

Heath looks up at him through his lashes. “I felt the most real when I was with you.”

Randal should pull his arm away. Should push Heath aside. Should get up and leave and tell Ash to send someone else on this mission. Instead he does nothing. Holds still when Heath leans in and brings their mouths together.

The touch of Heath's mouth to his is like a spark to a flame. Heath kisses him gently, so gently, and Randal hasn't got patience for that. He hauls Heath over into his lap, runs his hands along lean thighs and up toward his tight ass. He devours his mouth.

It tastes like coming home.

Heath mewls against him, murmurs his name. Buries his hands in his hair. “I've missed this.”

And damn if Randal hasn't missed it too. But he'd die before he admits it. He mauls Heath's neck and collarbone with kisses and bites, squeezes his ass and listens to him moan. He always did moan like a whore, like a bitch in heat. Heath takes his mouth again and kisses him wildly. Randal pulls away after what feels like hours. “This is a bad idea.”

Heath grips unto his shoulders tightly and shakes his head. “Just once, Randal. For old times sake.”

How can he deny that? Later he can say it was all to get the information Ash needed. (Even if it's a lie, he'll make himself believe it. He's so good at it.)

When it's over, Heath hands him a piece of paper with an address written on it. “He's likely long gone, but it's all I have.”

Randal has the urge to run his hand along the smooth plane of Heath's back, resists it. This was a one time thing. Once and done. “I'll give this to Ash.”

Heath turn his head on the pillow and looks over where Randal is pulling on his clothes. “I'm clean now, you know.”

“Good for you.”

“I'm my own person now, Randal. Whatever that means.”

Randal looks down at him. At the expanse of pale skin and perfect bone structure and all the things that once made him want. Still make him want, if he's honest. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

He leaves without saying goodbye.

///

Ash is grateful for the address, but Randal feels a sneaking suspicion she did this just to get him and Heath in a room together. Her office—Saorise's old office—is empty except for them and she's lounging in her chair, shoes kicked off.

“How did it go?” she asks, with eyes that know too much.

“As good as could be expected.”

Ash nods sagely. “Forgiveness is a bridge that must be built from both directions.”

“...What?” Randal misses the days when only Markus said cryptic shit.

“You should forgive him. You wouldn't hate him unless you still loved him.”

“That's bullshit.”

Ash shrugs. “You were jealous when he fawned over me.”

Randal shoots her a smile, too casual to be genuine. “Maybe I was jealous over you.”

She grins back. “Maybe you wanted us both.”

“Since when do you play matchmaker anyway?”

“It's hard to explain. I see something coming. Something he'll help keep at bay, if you let him.”

More Golgotha mystery crap.

“Not everyone deserves a second chance, Ash.”

“Since when do we get what we deserve?” Ash says. “You want him, he wants you. It's simple.”

Nothing is ever that simple, but...

“You already know how this is going to turn out, don't you?” Randal asks, resigned.

Ash grins again. “ _And I know it's true, that visions are seldom as they seem.”_

Randal throws a pillow at her. If he's damned to end up with Heath again anyway, why fight the inevitable?

Maybe this time things could work out.

“That's the spirit.”

And if they didn't...well, he's survived losing Heath once already. He can survive it again.

**Author's Note:**

> A comment or kudos would be much appreciated, just so I know I'm not screaming into the void.


End file.
